The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 296

11. S..1.nA1·s FAULTS. 1. '!'empting her husband. 2. Excusing herself, 3. Ap, pc-11ling to God. 4. .Afflicting her servant. III. AnRAM's INFIRMITY. 1. Yielding to temptation, 2. Perpetrating injustice. a.· .Acqttiescing in oppression.-W. EXPOSITION. ,er. 7.-And the angel of the Lord. t~, Arabie. Dosorta, bordering on Egypt (eh, Male~h JehovaJi,, elsewhere styled Ma/each ~v. 6 ! E~od._ ii~. 1). By the fountain, Ewhim (eh. xxi. 17; mi. 11); supposed 'I. he article_ 111d1catmg e. ·particular and well• but wrongly to bo a creRture angel {Angus• known spnng. In the way to Shur. "Be- t.ine Origen, Jerome, Hofmann, Baumgarten, fore Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria" Tholuck, Delitzsch, Kurtz), for the reasons (eh. xxv. 18); hence not Pelusium on the chiefly (1) that the tenn angel commonly Nile (Jos., '~nt.,_' vi. 7, 3), but probably the <lesignates a class of spiritual beings (eh. xix. modern Dsch1far m the north-west of Arabia 1 ; xxxii. 1 ; Job iv. 18 ; Ps. xci. 11; Matt. Desert& (Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, '.Keil, xiii. 41; John xx. 12, et passim); (2) that Lange). He.gar we.a clearly directing her the ayy<Ao~ r11piov of the New Testament lfod1t to Egypt. (Matt. i. 20; Luke ii. 9; Acts xii. i) is always ';er. 8. ~ A:nd he so.id, . B:e.ge.r, Be.rai'i e. created angel ; (3) that the meaning of the m!'-1d. Decli?mg to recogmso her marriage term 1l$7~, one sent, from 1~~' to depute (Ge- with the patnarch, the angel reminds her of senins), one through whom work is executed, her_ orig!nal position e.s a bondwoman, from which liberty was not to be obtained by from 1~?, to work (Keil), implies a certain flight, but by manumission. Whence ce.mest degree of subordination, which is afterwards th~u ! and whither wilt thou got . And she more distinctly recognised (I Chron. xxi. 27; sOJ.d, I flee from the fe.ce .of my mistress Zech. i. 12); (4) that the distinction .be- Sarai. " Her answer testifies to the oppres- tween the unrcvealed and the revealed God sion she had experienced, but also :to the was not then developed as in later tim~s, voice of her own conscience" (Lange)/ and particularly since the advent of Christ- Ver. 9.-And the e.ngel of the Lord said to e,ery one of which arguments, however, it unto her-:-as Paul afterwards practically is comparatively easy to reply (cf. Keil aud said to Onesimus, the runaway slave of Lange in loco). ".ith more force of reason Philcmon (vide Phil. 12)-return to thy bclic.cd to have been the Divine Being.him- mistress, e.nd submit thyself-the verb self, who already as J~hovab had appeared to here employed is the same as •that which Abram (the Fathers, the Reformers, Hengs- the historian uses to describe Sarah's con.. tenberg, Keil, Lange, Havernick, Nitzsch, duct towards her (ver.: 6) ;· its meaning Ebrard, Steir, Kalisch, Ainsworth, Bush, ob,iously is that she should meekly resigu 1Yordsworth, Candlish), since-1. The Illa- herself to the ungracious aud oppressivo .leach Jehovah explicitly identifies himself treatment of her mistress-under. her he.nds . 'l>itl.t Jehovah (.er. 10) and Elohim (eh. Ver. 10.-And the angel of the Lord so.id =:ii. 12). 2. Those to whom he makes his unto her (after duty, promise), I will J>rescnce known recognise him as Divine (eh. multiply thy seed exceedingly (literally, xri. 13; xriii. 23-33; xxviii. 16-22; multiplying I wilt multiply thy seed; lan- Exou. iii 6; Judges ri 15, 20-23; xiii. guage altogether inappropriate in the lips of 22). 3. The Biblical writers constantly a creature), that (literally, and) it shall not speak of him as Divine, calling him Jehoval1 be n11.D1bered for multitude. without the least reserve (eh. xvi. 13; xviii. Ver. ll.-A.nd the e.ngel of the Lord said 1 ; xxii. 16; Exou. iii. 2; Judges vi. 12). unto her, Behold, thou art with ohild, and 4. The doctrine here implied of a plurality thou she.It bear a son, and she.It ce.11 his of ]Jersolll! in the God.head is in complete no.me Ishme.el. ff Gou shall hear," or, accordance with earlier foreshadowings (eh. ff ,vhom God henrs," the first instance of i. 26 ; xi. 7) anJ later revelations of the the naming of e. child. before its birth (cf. 11ame truth. 5. The organic unity of Scrip- afterwards eh. xvii. 19 ; l Kings xiii. 2 ; tmc would be broken if it could be proved 1 Chron. x:xii. 9; Matt. i. 21 ; Luke i. 13). that the central point in the Old Testament Because the Lord hath hee.;rd thy affliction rn,clation Wall e. creature angel, while that •r~ ra1ruvw11u aov ( LXX. ), " thy prnyor" of the New is the incarnation of the God- (Chaldce), of which there is no mention, Man. Found her by e. fountain of water in though men's miserios are said to cry when the wilderneBB. Properly an nuinhabited men themselvos are mute (Calvin; cf. Exocl. district 111J.itable for pasturing flocks, from 11 i. 24; iii. 7). root signifying to lead to pasture ; hence e. Ver. 12.-And he will be a wild man. Bterile, eandy country, like that here referred Literally, a wild asa (of a) man; fo~ N1i, CD, XVI. 7-lG.] THE DOOK OF GENESIS.